Zhao Yuanqi paused, a faint, knowing smile playing on his lips as he looked at Chen Ping.

“Here is a statistic that is even more thought-provoking: Throughout recorded history, there has never been a single instance of a cultivator with a Five-Element Waste Spirit Root breaking through to the Violet Palace realm.”

Zhao Yuanqi’s eyebrows twitched upward, revealing a look of scholarly smugness.

“This absence of data falls perfectly within my calculations. It validates the theory I have constructed.”

He leaned back, tapping his fingers against his knee.

“If I must state a direct, completely blunt viewpoint… the Waste Spirit Root has no inherent flaw other than inefficiency. It simply cannot condense enough initial True Essence, and its cultivation speed is agonizingly slow. This leads to a mathematical certainty: the cultivator will exhaust their natural lifespan long before they can accumulate the vast ocean of True Essence required to assault the Violet Palace.”

“Therefore, for people like us… the path to the Violet Palace is severed.”

Chen Ping’s pupils dilated. His heart grew heavy.

So, this was the true ceiling. It wasn’t a matter of effort; it was a matter of time and capacity.

However, a contradiction sparked in his mind.

I have condensed six drops of True Essence.

Theoretically speaking, his foundation was already on par with ordinary cultivators—thanks to the second Foundation Establishment Pill he had consumed. He had brute-forced his capacity up to the standard.

Then why did he still feel that crushing sense of stagnation? Why did his cultivation feel immovable?

Chen Ping lowered his head, the answer forming quickly in his mind.

The answer was simple. And for the cultivation world, it was exceptionally cruel.

The truth was… most “ordinary” cultivators had no hope of stepping into the Violet Palace either.

If the Violet Palace realm were easy to enter, the Qingyun Sect wouldn’t rely on just a handful of Supreme Elders to hold up the sky.

Once Chen Ping accepted this logic, the knot in his chest loosened. His mind felt clearer.

So, everyone is in the same boat. We are all equally hopeless.

Of course, Chen Ping did not gloat over this shared misery. He simply found a way to release the pressure weighing on his Dao Heart.

But this realization birthed a new question.

Since my starting point—my capacity—is now the same as an ordinary cultivator’s, is there a variable I can change?

Is it possible to rely on external means to drastically increase the probability of reaching the Violet Palace?

Just as these thoughts churned in his mind, Zhao Yuanqi offered a solution that struck with the precision of a lightning bolt.

“But!”

Zhao Yuanqi’s voice suddenly rose, sharp with manic excitement. He leaned forward, his gaze burning as he stared at Chen Ping.

“Junior Brother, over these years, I have repeatedly deduced, calculated, and pondered. And I have theoretically constructed a method! A method that could shatter the curse of the Waste Spirit Root!”

“I wonder… is Junior Brother willing to listen?”

Chen Ping’s heart skipped a beat. He stared at the eccentric scholar and cupped his hands in a deep salute.

“Senior Brother, please speak! I am listening.”

Zhao Yuanqi grinned, his face flushed with the joy of finding a willing audience.

“Junior Brother, what I am about to say is purely theoretical. It has never been tested in practice. It is just that… thinking of your ‘father’ suffering under the shackles of his talent, my heart feels stifled. I must speak it out!”

“You may believe it, or you may dismiss it. The choice is yours!”

The corner of Chen Ping’s mouth twitched.

You feel stifled?

Looking at Zhao’s flushed face and glittering eyes, he looked like he had just swallowed a Ten Perfect Great Tonic Pill. He looked utterly euphoric.

Where is this ‘stifle’ coming from? How hypocritical…

“Naturally, I trust Senior Brother’s wisdom,” Chen Ping said smoothly.

Zhao Yuanqi nodded, his eyes practically shooting beams of golden light. He spoke rapidly, the words tumbling out as if he feared the spark of inspiration would vanish if he paused for breath.

“First: Speed! You need a secret technique—one that can drastically accelerate the rate of refining medicinal efficacy and absorbing Qi! An ordinary cultivator needs three days to slowly dissolve the energy of a True Essence Pill and integrate it into their meridians. But what if there was a technique that shortened this to one day? Or even allowed you to refine several pills in a single day?”

“Second: Quantity! Since the foundation is shallow and the conversion rate is poor, we must compensate with brute force! We use a quantity of pills that far exceeds the norm to pile up the energy! We use quantitative change to force a qualitative change!”

Chen Ping listened, his blood heating up. But his rationality forced him to pour cold water on the idea.

“Senior Brother, if one swallows such a massive quantity of pills like a whale, the accumulated Pill Toxin would be deep as an abyss. Wouldn’t that sever one’s own meridians? This method is no different from drinking poison to quench thirst. It is suicide.”

“Excellent question!”

Zhao Yuanqi slapped his thigh fiercely, his face beaming with the pride of a teacher whose student finally asked the right question.

“The key lies precisely in the toxicity! With ordinary pills, the impurities are high and the toxin load is heavy. Naturally, this method is a death sentence. But what if… we used High-grade pills? Or even… Supreme-grade pills?”

His voice dropped to a whisper, heavy with the allure of forbidden knowledge.

“High-grade pills have ninety-eight percent of their impurities removed. Supreme-grade pills? They are ninety-nine percent pure! If you use Supreme-grade pills as your ‘fuel,’ and supplement them with an overbearing secret technique to drive the refinement… the Pill Toxin would be negligible!”

“Your meridians would not clog. This is seeking victory amidst danger—using the pure ‘Volume’ of resources to compensate for the ‘Shallowness’ of talent!”

Zhao Yuanqi was vibrating with excitement now. He reached out and patted Chen Ping’s shoulder hard.

“Junior Brother, you may not know this, but I have consulted many obscure ancient texts. There is indeed an overbearing secret technique passed down from antiquity, named the ‘Whale Swallowing Technique’!”

“Its essence is to forcibly expand the meridians, using an almost predatory method to swallow, absorb, and refine a massive amount of Qi in an extremely short time! It fits this theory perfectly! Only…”

His excitement dimmed slightly, and he shook his head.

“Because of the terrifying backlash from Pill Toxin, this technique has long been regarded as useless—a relic shelved and forgotten. But if paired with a continuous supply of Supreme-grade pills…”

Whale Swallowing Technique! Supreme-grade pills!

Chen Ping’s pupils contracted into two cold, condensed stars.

Inside his Dantian, the Dao Foundation Stele seemed to tremble violently.

Zhao Yuanqi kept talking, but Chen Ping could no longer hear the specific words. A single thought echoed in his mind like a great bell, shattering the stagnation and heaviness that had plagued him for days.

There is a way.

This wasn’t just a vague hope for cultivation.

For Chen Ping, this was a viable roadmap to the Violet Palace.

If Zhao Yuanqi’s theory held true, he had just discovered a unique cultivation path tailored specifically for him.

Technically, anyone could use this method. But practically? It was impossible for almost everyone.

A standard True Essence Pill cost over two hundred Spirit Stones.

A Supreme-grade True Essence Pill? That would cost between five hundred and a thousand Spirit Stones per pill.

To fuel the “Whale Swallowing Technique,” one would need to consume these daily. The cost would be astronomical—enough to bankrupt a clan. Anyone else who possessed this method could only gaze at the ocean and sigh in despair.

But for Chen Ping…

This was not a problem.

He had the Black Earth. He had the ability to ripen herbs.

Once the True Essence Grass in his possession was successfully transformed into a Spirit Tree…

He wouldn’t have to wait years. He would have a source of continuous, renewable Supreme-grade True Essence Pills.

His path was clear.

The immediate priority, Chen Ping thought, his eyes narrowing, is to obtain a Foundation Establishment cultivation manual… and that Whale Swallowing Technique!